Ani's 2017 Log

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Ani
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Fri Feb 10, 2017 6:42 am

Expugnator wrote:Any language will be easy after Russian :twisted:

Seriously, Greek has some vocabulary discount for attentive speakers of English and/or a Romance language. After a year my active skills are way better than my non-existent Russian ones.

I can't speak for Hebrew but from a brief contact it does seem easier than Russian.


That is good to know. I might be interested in both in the coming years.... if I live through this year of being a beginner in both Finnish and Russian :lol: .


Speaking of Finnish.. arrgghh. I am going back through the grammar notes starting right at the beginning of the book. The good news is that the fist few lessons look pretty straight forward now. The bad news is.. Assimil makes me insane with partial grammar explanations. Today's frustration: en ole = je ne suis pas. ok. et ole = tu n'es pas. sounds good again. hän ei ole = il n'est pas. Why does the 3rd person use hän and the others don't need it? It is a mystery. I am sure I can accept it as "that is just what you do" but I need everything listed in one place or my brain starts to explode a little bit.

I did buy Harry Potter in Finnish today. I don't know enough to start reading it yet but I was super excited that I recognized ensimmäinen luku printed at the top of the page :lol: ( and that was about all I recognized!)

I did start to total my hours of French TV this year. Not complete yet so I won't post a number but it is not too bad. Got a couple episodes in today and maybe 40 pages of reading.
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Fortheo
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Fortheo » Fri Feb 10, 2017 9:10 am

Ani wrote:That is good to know. I might be interested in both in the coming years.... if I live through this year of being a beginner in both Finnish and Russian :lol: .


Speaking of Finnish.. arrgghh. I am going back through the grammar notes starting right at the beginning of the book. The good news is that the fist few lessons look pretty straight forward now. The bad news is.. Assimil makes me insane with partial grammar explanations. Today's frustration: en ole = je ne suis pas. ok. et ole = tu n'es pas. sounds good again. hän ei ole = il n'est pas. Why does the 3rd person use hän and the others don't need it? It is a mystery. I am sure I can accept it as "that is just what you do" but I need everything listed in one place or my brain starts to explode a little bit.

I did buy Harry Potter in Finnish today. I don't know enough to start reading it yet but I was super excited that I recognized ensimmäinen luku printed at the top of the page :lol: ( and that was about all I recognized!)

I did start to total my hours of French TV this year. Not complete yet so I won't post a number but it is not too bad. Got a couple episodes in today and maybe 40 pages of reading.


That's always been one of my biggest gripes with Assimil, too. That's why I'm focusing pretty heavily on grammar courses—Michel thomas and then Hugo's in three months—before I plan to get into Assimil Russian.

Out of curiosity, how many pages would you guess you read in French per night? is 40 pages average for you? it feels like you read extremely fast!
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Fri Feb 10, 2017 7:48 pm

Fortheo wrote:That's always been one of my biggest gripes with Assimil, too. That's why I'm focusing pretty heavily on grammar courses—Michel thomas and then Hugo's in three months—before I plan to get into Assimil Russian.

Out of curiosity, how many pages would you guess you read in French per night? is 40 pages average for you? it feels like you read extremely fast!


Yeah I am closing the gap on reading speed between French and English. Not quite as fast as I read in English but it is getting much better. I haven't timed myself in either language lately but I am thinking French might be 30-50 pages/hour if I don't need to stop and look things up. The last book was a translation that I know very well so definitely on the higher side. If I divide up my pages read/days in the year, I am about 40 pages per day right now. It isn't ever all at once though. Just little bits of time here and there, more on some days, less on others. Lots of it while I am trying to convince my toddler to go to sleep :)
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Fortheo » Fri Feb 10, 2017 8:25 pm

Ani wrote:
Yeah I am closing the gap on reading speed between French and English. Not quite as fast as I read in English but it is getting much better. I haven't timed myself in either language lately but I am thinking French might be 30-50 pages/hour if I don't need to stop and look things up. The last book was a translation that I know very well so definitely on the higher side. If I divide up my pages read/days in the year, I am about 40 pages per day right now. It isn't ever all at once though. Just little bits of time here and there, more on some days, less on others. Lots of it while I am trying to convince my toddler to go to sleep :)


That's a really good pace! my average is probably around 20 pages a day, 30 on a good day. Another question out of curiosity: do you read English books regularly, too? It truly amazes me how people are juggling multiple languages. I maybe read 4 or 5 English books last year because all my mental energy went to French. It's strange because I often see people asking, "how do you all find time for multiple languages?", but my question would be, "how do you all find the mental energy?"
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Fri Feb 10, 2017 9:27 pm

Fortheo wrote:That's a really good pace! my average is probably around 20 pages a day, 30 on a good day. Another question out of curiosity: do you read English books regularly, too? It truly amazes me how people are juggling multiple languages. I maybe read 4 or 5 English books last year because all my mental energy went to French. It's strange because I often see people asking, "how do you all find time for multiple languages?", but my question would be, "how do you all find the mental energy?"



Oh the mental energy is a problem for sure! I probably have an advantage as a stay at home mom. After a day of functioning on child level, I am pretty desperate to block it all out and do something that uses my brain. There was a point for me last year where I realized that French wasn't necessarily taking effort though. There are plenty of days where I am just not up to grammar study AT ALL, but reading and listening in French are as comfortable as English at this point. Sometimes I have more difficulty with English, especially British accents.

I have only read a book and a half in English so far this year. I'll probably hit 10-12 total. For myself at least. I read a lot in English that relates to teaching homeschooling, and I read aloud to my kids about an hour a day -- some classics, some more childish. DH and I also decided to listen to the audio book of War and Peace together this year. So I guess the answer is "sorta" but not like I do in French.
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Jar-Ptitsa » Fri Feb 10, 2017 9:28 pm

How many children have you got?
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Fri Feb 10, 2017 9:34 pm

vogeltje wrote:How many children have you got?

1000? Wait no, it just feels that way some days :lol: 4 with one more coming in April :D
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Jar-Ptitsa » Fri Feb 10, 2017 9:43 pm

Ani wrote:
vogeltje wrote:How many children have you got?

1000? Wait no, it just feels that way some days :lol: 4 with one more coming in April :D


wow, a lot then :)
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-w- I am Jar-ptitsa and my Hawaiian name is ʻā ʻaia. Please correct my mistakes in all the languages. Thank you very much.
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Sun Feb 12, 2017 5:37 am

Saturdays are often days I can catch up on language study since my two big kids are in skiing programs all day. Having just two little ones makes for an unusually quiet house.

I'm still in the phonetic section of my Russian book, which occupies the first 60 pages and also demands that you learn cursive writing. It is a slow start but I like it. Still plugging away at Finnish grammar and trying to consolidate all the grammar notes from the first two weeks of Assimil lessons. When I go back through them I don't feel quite so lost, which is super nice. I also went and finished lesson 5 in FIA. I know I said I wasn't going to do it, but there it was tempting me. I guess it is a nice review. I am not sure it is worth the hours, at least not the first half of the lessons, but it sure is nicely organized. I really need to purchase Grammaire Progressive du français niveau avancé but I have a LOT of unfinished things in my life right now. I did get myself settled into FSI and review a couple lessons. I need to get new printer ink and print out a bunch of the pdf. I just can't work with it at the computer. And to top off this super long update: I am half an episode from the end of Charmed saison 3. IRRC, Shannen Doherty dies at the end of this episode. I am not sure I'll have the stamina to watch the next 5 seasons without her.

In trying to total my TV watching for the year, I found a great website, betaseries.com for tracking the TV series you watch. I only put in the series and episodes I've watched since jan. 1 in French. It is super easy to input everything.
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Re: Ani's 2017 Log

Postby Ani » Wed Feb 15, 2017 8:46 am

Couple of busy days here. Only had about 45 minutes today to actually sit and work today so I split it in 3rds and did some French writing exercises, listened to a review of my Russian lessons, and tackled a couple Finnish grammar points. Oh and Memrise too.. gotta keep up the streak :)

I finished La quête de Despereaux yesterday. It was a quick read. I really can't understand why Kate DiCamillo is supposedly a children's author. The two of her books I have read have included rather traumatic subject matter for a child. If you haven't read Despereaux, it talks about how a mother dies because she doesn't care what her daughter wants. As a mother myself, this stung to the core. Then the poor girl is sold at the age of 6 and abused until she is deafened. All described in fairly bold detail. I am glad this book is in French so my 6 year old daughter can't read it. There wasn't really much redeeming in the end either. On the other hand, I really like DiCamillo's prose and there were some interesting things to think on. I think the French translation suited her style (although I never read this book in English, but have read another of hers). There were a few phrases that struck me as Canadian French though, and I need to research that more. They might have been or I might just been wrong. I am not sure. It is a book I would enjoy re-reading and working with more closely to examine the writing style, as long as I disassociate it from the idea that it is for children. I do recommend it for learners. The vocabulary and grammar are on the complex side, yet it is short enough that you can work through carefully if needed without getting so bogged down you never finish.

I am captivated by a non-fiction book in English now, An Old Man's Toy: Gravity at work and play in Einstein's Universe by A. Zee. I think Anthony Zee is one of the best authors I have come across in a good while. I can't decide if I should string out this book bit by bit between French novels, or just take a quick break from French reading and gobble it up. It is divided into 4 parts, so perhaps I will read one part between each French novel.

French novel count for the year is at 5, 6 if we count Martin et les fées. The hobbit and another Fred Vargas are up next. Both pretty short. TV watching is at 25 hours and a bit more as I have a couple series I started since January but haven't added to betaseries yet. Audio book goal has floundered, but I'll be stuck in bed in a couple months and might be able to salvage it.
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